Ven Nyanamoli’s list of Grammatical Terms Published

Posted by Anandajoti on Sunday, 8th June, 2014

Over the years I have been trying to build up the Reference section of the Ancient Buddhist Texts website, and by now have three long essays on Geography, Art and Literature; sections of abstracts from doctrinal terms, structural analyses, a section on time, and a fairly good section on Grammar.

Recently I received permission from the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka to publish an appendix from Ven Nyanamoli’s A Pali-English Glossary of Buddhist Technical Terms that deals with grammatical terms.

This gives a classified and alphabetical list of the main terms used in the Grammars, along with their English equivalents and examples, for such matters as case endings, verb forms, words for nouns and the various compounds we come across in Pāḷi. For any student this should be a big help in learning the rather large technical terminology involved in grammatical studies.

I have also added a section to it listing the main grammar works written in the pre-modern era (but not modern grammars), and their affiliation, as these are also often referred to in the literature, but it is hard to find a well organised listing for these books; and I have added to and rearranged some of the material.

I will continue adding to the listing as and when I can, and if anyone has any suggestions for additions, improvements, etc, please do contact me.